Aircraft
Korea F-16 Radar RFP-issue Is Imminent
South Korea is expected to issue a request for proposals for an F-16 radar retrofit this week.
Side-by-side on Stand E320, the Raytheon Advanced Combat Radars, which can be retrofitted to the F/A-18 (left) and F-16 (right).
Side-by-side on Stand E320, the Raytheon Advanced Combat Radars, which can be retrofitted to the F/A-18 (left) and F-16 (right).

South Korea is expected to issue a request for proposals for an F-16 radar retrofit this week. It could be the first country to decide between the Northrop Grumman Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) and the Raytheon Advanced Combat Radar (RACR). Taiwan will follow, and Singapore is another prospect, according to Larry Seeley, Raytheon’s APG-79 international capture manager.

But now that the U.S. Air Force has revealed its own plan for an F-16 radar retrofit, it’s possible that international customers could await its choice, Smeeley told AIN. Although the service recently outlined the F-16 upgrade to Congress, “I haven’t yet seen a budget line item,” Seeley cautioned. Raytheon is not the incumbent supplier of F-16 radars, but it has flight-tested the RACR on a U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon.